Category Archives: Sponsors

Spotlight on Our Sponsors – JB Media Group, LLC

JB Media

Meet Adrianne Gordon of JB Media Group

Every year we share information about our local sponsors. These companies make WordCamp Asheville possible. Today we want to introduce one of our local Bronze Sponsors JB Media Group and let Adrianne share their story with us and explain why they love WordPress and why they feel it’s important to be a part of WordCamp.

Q. What do you do at JB Media Group?
A. I am Director of Business Operations.

Q. Why do you do it? What is your mission?
A. We increase the reach and impact of mission-driven companies and organizations in our community and across the globe. Our creative digital marketing strategies, content, and campaigns help you achieve your goals so we can build a better world together.

Q. Why is WordPress important to you? Why do you love it?
A. The WordPress platform is a great fit for so many of our clients to connect with their customers and communities. We love the collaboration and innovation within the WordPress community!

Q. What products and services do you offer?
A. We support business and organizations locally and nationally through digital marketing and training services. Our focus is on strategic and creative content development and distribution including blogging, SEO, social media, and online advertising.

Q.Why do you support WordCamp? What do you hope attendees gain from participating? What suggestions, inspirations, or message do you have to share with attendees in Asheville?
A. We support WordCamp because we believe continuous education is critical to stay ahead of the frequent changes in technology and marketing. From business owners managing their own site to developers, WordCamp provides helpful tips, a great network, and new ideas.

Q. How can people learn more about what you do?
A. Find us on social media at:
Facebook.com/JBMedia
Twitter.com/JBMediaGroupLLC
Visit our website, JBMediaGroupLLC.com, where you can subscribe to our newsletter and read our blog.

Spotlight on Our Sponsors – A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting

Meet Ashley Maurer of A2 Hosting

Every year we share information about our sponsors. These companies make WordCamps across the nation and in our region possible. Today we want to introduce one of our Silver Sponsors A2 Hosting and let Ashley share their story with us and explain why they love WordPress and why they feel it’s important to be a part of WordCamp.

Q. What do you do at A2 Hosting?
A. I am the Marketing Coordinator.

Q. Why do you do it? What is your mission?
A. We love what we do and enjoy making customers happy! Our focus here at A2 Hosting is to be the web hosting provider that we would want to use ourselves. That means fast servers, reliable performance, amazing support and being 100% honest.

Q. Why is WordPress important to you? Why do you love it?
A. We are 100% committed to the success of our customers. WordPress is a powerful, easy to use, secure and reliable tool and when setup on a well configured, highly sophisticated hosting platform such as what we have developed at A2 Hosting, it gives small businesses a huge advantage. We also love the amazing community that surrounds WordPress and enjoy being a part of it. Events like this give us an opportunity to meet our customers face-to-face, hear their stories and answer their questions.

Q. What products and services do you offer?
A. We have a full range of products including Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Cloud Hosting, VPS Hosting and Dedicated Hosting, which means our customers can grow with us throughout the entire lifecycle of their website. Our most popular product line for WordPress users is our Shared Hosting, as it comes with WordPress pre-installed. Another great feature is our A2 Optimized plugin, which auto-configures your site with the best performance and security settings. We also provide free account migration, so there is no need to worry about the hassle of switching hosts. Our Guru Crew can handle the whole thing for you!

Q. Who are your ideal customers and clients?
A. As a high performance web host, our services are geared towards website owners who are looking for speed. Our high performance SwiftServer platform and SwiftServer SSDs are optimized to give you the best performance possible- so whether you run a low traffic, brand new blog or own a large and popular business site, we’ve got you covered!

Q.Why do you support WordCamp? What do you hope attendees gain from participating? What suggestions, inspirations, or message do you have to share with attendees in Asheville?
A. We support WordCamps because they play a critical role in sustaining and growing this vibrant open source community. WordCamp organizers, volunteers, speakers and sponsors alike are effectively the welcoming committee for new, enthusiastic users of the WordPress platform. We greatly appreciate how impactful it can be for beginners to meet and get help from more experienced users in person at events and we want to be a part of that. As for inspiring attendees, we want to remind everyone that absolutely every other person in attendance has some challenge they are facing and to not be afraid to open up about whatever yours may be. Don’t be afraid to ask even the simplest questions. Take advantage of resources like the Happiness Bar and talk with the sponsors- we’re all here to help!

Q. How can people learn more about what you do? [bold]
A. Find us on social media at:
Facebook.com/A2WebHosting
Twitter.com/A2Hosting
Visit our website, a2hosting.com, where you can subscribe to our newsletter and read our blog.

Spotlight on Our Sponsors – Give

Give - Democratizing Generosity

Meet Jason Knill, CoFounder of Give

Every year we share information about our sponsors. These companies make WordCamps across the nation and in our region possible. Today we want to introduce one of our Silver Sponsors Give and let Jason Knill share their story with us and explain why they love WordPress and how they are helping nonprofit organizations and fundraising teams use WordPress more effectively.

Q. What do you do at Give?
A. I am CoFounder and in charge of Finance and Marketing

Q. Why do you do it? What is your mission?
A. Our mission at Give is to Democratize Generosity and bring a voice to the voiceless. It would be also nice to create an organization that can employee thousands of people, around the world.

Q. Why is WordPress important to you? Why do you love it?
A. WordPress is a path to freedom, success, community, personal growth and self-awareness. It is so much more than a tool-because the folks in our community care about really changing stuff-to improve everyone’s daily life. ..oh, and I can create a post and featured image without code skills.

Q. What products and services do you offer?
A. At GiveWP we built a donation plugin. We also have several other plugins at our parent company, WordImpress including a Maps plugin, a series of Reviews plugins and a Woo add-on too. We are a pure-play plugin shop…who likes to play.

Q. Who are your ideal customers and clients?
A. An ideal client is someone who can listen and be listened to. I’m open to talking to anyone who needs help or advice, but we mostly work with nonprofits, web agencies, political organization, government and educational institutions.

Q.Why do you support WordCamp? What do you hope attendees gain from participating? What suggestions, inspirations, or message do you have to share with attendees in Asheville?
A. WordCamp is where our people are at. It’s totally natural to go where your people go. Plus, I like Craft Beer and I hear Asheville is the place to be, so I’m using my WordPress skills to travel around and meet new people

Q. How can people learn more about what you do?
A. Find us on social media at:
Facebook.com/WPGive
Twitter.com/JasonPKnill
Check out our blog at GiveWP.com and at WordImpress.com. Feel free to always troll me on Twitter or even LinkedIn, but I’m more of a meet in person kinda person than a meet online kinda person.

Spotlight on Our Sponsors – Big Boom Design

Big Boom Design

 

Meet Boomer from Big Boom Design

Every year we share information about our sponsors. These companies make WordCamps across the nation and in our region possible. Today we want to introduce one of our local Silver Sponsors Big Boom Design and let owner Boomer Sassmann share their story with us and explain how they use WordPress and contribute to the Asheville community.

Q. What do you do at Big Boom Design? 
A. I am the owner.

Q. Why do you do it? What is your mission?
A. My goal is to help simplify the internet for businesses and general users of the web.

Q. Why is WordPress important to you? Why do you love it? 
A. WordPress has changed my life and the life of all of our employees and clients. It serves as a gateway to free speech on the internet.

Q. What products and services do you offer?
A. We provide educational web design and internet consulting services.

Q. Who are your ideal customers and clients?
A. We primarily work with non-profits, associations, tourism agencies and sustainably minded companies.

Q.Why do you support WordCamp? What do you hope attendees gain from participating? What suggestions, inspirations, or message do you have to share with attendees in Asheville? 
A. I support WordCamp because the internet is a community and WordCamp is the physical gathering of that community. I hope that attendees will connect, laugh, learn, and get further inspired by this amazing platform. WordPress really can change your life, even if you’re not a total nerd.

Q. How can people learn more about what you do?
A. Find us on social media at:
Facebook.com/BigBoomDesign
Twitter.com/BigBoomDesign
Instagram/BigBoomDesign
Or visit our website www.bigboomdesign.com

Spotlight on Our Sponsors – Status Forward

Status Forward

Meet Laurel from Status Forward

Every year we share information about our sponsors. These companies make WordCamps across the nation and in our region possible. Today we want to introduce one of our local Silver Sponsors Status Forward and let website developer Laurel Scherer share their story with us and explain how they use WordPress and contribute to the Asheville community.

Q. What do you do at Status Forward?
A.
I am the Lead Developer

Q. Why do you do it? What is your mission?
A.
We help build forward thinking brands and innovative websites that help our clients stand out from the crowd, attract desired clientele, and get real results.

Q. Why is WordPress important to you? Why do you love it?
A.
WordPress is the foundation for all of our website design/development. We love it because it allows us to be flexible and it allows our clients to easily manage their own content.

Q. What products and services do you offer?
A.
We provide creative services like visual brand identity development, website design/development, and graphic design.

Q. Who are your ideal customers and clients?
A. Our team loves to work with organizations and entrepreneurs interested and ready to move their brand forward through an effective visual identity and web presence.

Q.Why do you support WordCamp? What do you hope attendees gain from participating? What suggestions, inspirations, or message do you have to share with attendees in Asheville?
A.
WordCamp is a terrific opportunity for everyone in the WordPress community to come together and support one another.

Q. How can people learn more about what you do?
A.
Find us on social media at:

Or visit our website www.statusforward.com

Spotlight on Our Sponsors – SiteLock

Meet Adam from SiteLock

Every year we share information about our sponsors. These companies make WordCamps across the nation and in our region possible. Today we want to introduce our Bronze Sponsor SiteLock and let WordPress Community Evangelist Adam Warber share their story with us and explain how they use WordPress and contribute to the open source community.

Q. What do you do at SiteLock?
A.
I am a WordPress Community Evangelist for SiteLock

Q. Why do you do it? What is your mission?
A.
To create a safer internet for all users by protecting every business and website from malware and hacking attempts.

Q. Why is WordPress important to you? Why do you love it?
A.
Adam discovered WordPress in 2005 when looking for a faster way to update his hand-written HTML websites. WordPress spoke to him visually and it’s been by his side ever since. Having been involved in the community for so long, it’s safe to say that most (if not all) of my closest friends are in this same community. I am constantly evangelizing the use of WordPress to people I meet because I believe in the mission of democratizing publishing, so it just makes sense to work in the community I love.

Q. What products and services do you offer?
A.
We are the only provider to offer complete, cloud-based website protection that finds and automatically fixes threats, prevents future attacks, accelerates website speed, and meets PCI compliance standards — all with 24/7 U.S. based phone support.

Our products include:

Daily or Continuous Malware Scanning and Removal: SiteLock® SMART™ (Secure Malware Alert and Removal Tool) is a technologically advanced product with an acute ability to find and automatically remove malware found on your website. This helps prevent search engine blacklisting, which means keeping your website online and your business running. SiteLock SMART also performs web app scanning, which checks for vulnerabilities like XSS or SQLi, and so much more.

SiteLock911: Is your site infected with malware? SiteLock911 does for your website what anti-virus software and clean-up tools do for your PC. The difference is that malware on your website can affect more people and computers than a virus on a single PC. Yet PC anti-virus programs are almost taken for granted, and website security and malware removal is unfortunately often deferred until there is a problem. SiteLock thoroughly trains our team of security experts to find and remove website malware, just like automatic clean-up tools do for PCs.

TrueShield Web Application Firewall (WAF): A web application firewall (WAF) is the ultimate layer of protection for your website. TrueShield Web Application Firewall protects websites from malicious traffic and blocks harmful requests. Our advanced technology identifies backdoor files and blocks access to them immediately. The setup process is fast and seamless via a simple change.

TrueSpeed CDN: Website speed performance plays a huge role in generating a positive customer experience — which ultimately leads to higher revenue and increased customer loyalty. SiteLock advanced Content Delivery Network (CDN) greatly increases your website speed, while also using significantly less bandwidth.

TrueCode: TrueCode Static Application Security Testing (SAST) is our deepest source code analysis. Also known as “white-box” testing, TrueCode finds common vulnerabilities by analyzing 100% of the source code of your applications without actually executing them, and adds a unique and critical layer of security by protecting your web apps — where 92% of all vulnerabilities reside.

PCI Compliance: If your business accepts credit cards, you need to be PCI Compliant. The SiteLock® PCI compliance program is the fastest and easiest way to meet these requirements for companies who accept credit card payments. Avoid fines from your processor and reduce risk of fraud for your customers.

Q. Why do you support WordCamp? What do you hope attendees gain from participating? What suggestions, inspirations, or message do you have to share with attendees in Asheville?
A.
Over 27 percent of websites are powered by WordPress. At SiteLock, our number one goal is to create a better and safer Internet for all users. We are extremely proud and thankful for the opportunity to fulfill this mission by participating in the WordPress community and supporting many WordPress initiatives.

As an example, we recognized the need for dedicated WordPress evangelists, who could make WordPress community development their full-time job. Logan Kipp and Adam Warner have taken on this role with a passion, and continue to foster partnerships and ongoing education within the community.

If you haven’t already met them, Logan and Adam are the ones attending and speaking on behalf of SiteLock at various WordCamps throughout the year. They play a huge role in helping us determine how our products and services can make a greater impact in the community. Our message in Asheville will be the importance of securing your business and those of your clients, but also just as important, your personal security online.

Q. How can people learn more about what you do?
A.
Find us on social media at Facebookcom/SiteLock or Twitter.com/SiteLock. You can alos visit our website at www.Sitelock.com.

 

Spotlight on Our Sponsors – SiteGround

Siteground logo

Meet SiteGround

Every year we share information about our sponsors. These companies make WordCamps across the nation and in our region possible. Today we want to introduce our Gold Sponsor SiteGround and share a little bit of their story. Check out our Q & A with this fun, reliable, and awesome hosting company.

Q. What is your name?
A.
Lilyana Yakimova

Q. What do you do at SiteGround?
A.
I am Marketing Projects Director at SiteGround.com, where we specialize in managed hosting solutions for WordPress and other open-source platforms. Since 2004 we’ve been mastering the craft of forging complex technology into human-scale web hosting solutions that actually work for our clients, not the other way round. We host over 500 000 domain names and have 5 server data centers in USA, Europe and Asia.

Q. Why do you do it? What is your mission?
A.
I joined the company since its very foundation, and have actively participated in its marketing and communication strategy to date, effectively communicating SiteGround’s strengths and helping to grow the company from a single client to an international business.Our mission is to be real craftsmen in what we do. This means that we do not simply follow the latest developments in the hosting field. Instead, we are proud to be among the few who actually take the lead. To illustrate with a small example: we were updating WordPress instances automatically in order to secure our WordPress clients long before the term “managed WordPress hosting” even existed.

Q. Why is WordPress important to you? Why do you love it?
A.
We wanted to make good web hosting services accessible and delightful to use for people of all technical levels. We empower both professionals and WordPress beginners to build better, faster, safer websites easily and not have to worry about web hosting. Apart from automatic updates, we constantly monitor for WordPress-related vulnerabilities and take proactive measures to protect our customers. We have also developed our own dynamic WordPress NGINX-based cache solution that makes websites super fast and a one-click staging and wp-cli and git for the WordPress devs.We’ve also been actively involved in the WordPress community sharing knowledge, learning from one another, supporting and attending various WordCamps around the world. It’s an amazing ecosystem that helps everyone do their best work – from the newbies to the pros.

Q. What products and services do you offer? Please provide detail.
A.
We craft managed web hosting solutions for personal websites, online businesses and enterprise projects that our customers love.

Q. Who are your ideal customers? What kind of companies and businesses should contact you for services or products?
A.
Part of SiteGround’s mission to craft truly superior managed hosting services is to do offer much more to our customers than they would normally expect from a hosting provider. We’re always looking to collaborate with innovative and forward-thinking companies who share our values that there is always a way to make things better. So we are constantly looking to improve our product and services and make them even more valuable for the clients, while giving them easy access to a service they would normally have to seek out themselves.

Q. Why do you support WordCamp? What do you hope attendees gain from participating? What suggestions, inspirations, or message do you have to share with attendees in Asheville?
A.
In a world where hosted website-building solutions are becoming more and more popular, WordPress is very important for the industry as we currently know it. We believe in keeping the web open and independent, that’s why we support open-source solutions and the WordPress ecosystem specifically. We believe in giving clients the freedom to get crafty with their website design, keep control of their content and always have an easy way to try out different hosting platforms. That’s why WordCamps are especially important, because in sharing knowledges and common issues, you’re actually helping move things forward for everyone, not just for yourself.

Q. How can people stay up to date on what your company is doing?
A.
The SiteGround blog is a great way to start and keep an eye on what we’ve been up to – we share interesting projects that we’re working on, news and other bits of industry information that can tell you a lot about the way we do things at SiteGround.

Facebook.com/SiteGround
Twitter.com/SiteGround
Instagram.com/SiteGround

Spotlight on Our Sponsors – GoDaddy

GoDaddy Pro Logo

Meet GoDaddy

Every year we share information about our sponsors. These companies make WordCamps across the nation and in our region possible. Today we want to introduce our Silver Sponsor GoDaddy and share a little bit of their story. Check out our Q & A .

Q. What is your name?
A.
Mendel

Q. Why do you do it? What is your mission?
A.
My mission is to contribute to and bring feedback from the community to make GoDaddy’s products, service, and advertising better.

Q. Why is WordPress important to you? Why do you love it?
A.
It’s versatile with a vibrant community. What’s not to love?

Q. What products and services do you offer?
A.
Managed WordPress hosting and a suite of tools for web professionals called GoDaddy Pro https://godaddy.com/pro/.

Q. Who are your ideal customers? What kind of companies and businesses should contact you for services or products?
A.
People who build websites for others.

Q. Why do you support WordCamp? What do you hope attendees gain from participating? What suggestions, inspirations, or message do you have to share with attendees in Asheville?
A.
It’s simple, we support WordCamps to help people to easily start, confidently grow and successfully run their own ventures.

Q. How can people stay up to date on what your company is doing?
A.
Visit our site at GoDaddy.com/garage/  and join our social networks here:
Facebook.com/GoDaddy
Twitter accounts = @ifyouwillit or @godaddy
Instagram accounts = @ifyouwillit or @godaddy

Spotlight on Our Sponsors – Jetpack

Jetpack Logo

Meet Jetpack

Every year we share information about our sponsors. These companies make WordCamps across the nation and in our region possible. Today we want to introduce our Gold Sponsor Jetpack and share a little bit of their story. Check out our Q & A with one of the most amazing suites of plugins made for WordPress and learn more about the incredible Automattic – the genius team behind WordPress.

Q. What do you do at Jetpack?
A. Events Wrangler

Q. Why do you do it? What is your mission?
A. Jetpack is a single plugin that gives you the most powerful WordPress.com features, hooking your self-hosted WordPress site to WordPress.com’s infrastructure to take advantage of robust stats, easy social sharing, and a whole lot more.

Q. Why is WordPress important to you? Why do you love it?
A. WordPress is already the most popular and powerful way of getting your voice online. Jetpack helps you build on top of that platform to create beautiful, functional websites, grow your audience, and secure your investment.

Q. What products and services do you offer?
A. Jetpack

Q. Who are your ideal customers? What kind of companies and businesses should contact you for services or products?
A.
Anyone who’s hosting their own WordPress-powered site and wants to take advantage of the awesome features that Jetpack provides.

Q. Why do you support WordCamp? What do you hope attendees gain from participating? What suggestions, inspirations, or message do you have to share with attendees in Asheville?
A. Jetpack not only enjoys supporting the WordPress community, but thrives on the one-on-one feedback we receive by attending WordCamps.

Q. How can people learn more about what you do?
A. Visit www.Jetpack.com to learn more about how we can make your life with WordPress easier.
Also join our social networks at:
Facebook.com/JetpackMe
Twitter.com/Jetpack

 

Spotlight on Our Sponsors – WooCommerce

WooCommerce Logo

Meet WooCommerce

Every year we share information about our sponsors. These companies make WordCamps across the nation and in our region possible. Today we want to introduce our Gold Sponsor WooCommerce and share a little bit of their story. Check out our Q & A with one of the best ecommerce systems made for WordPress.  

Q. What do you do at WooCommerce?
A. Events Wrangler

Q. Why do you do it? What is your mission?
A. We want to be the ultimate WordPress toolkit provider to empower people to build greater things with WordPress.

Q. Why is WordPress important to you? Why do you love it?
A. WooCommerce is built to integrate seamlessly with WordPress, which is the world’s most popular and powerful method for creating a website.

Q. What products and services do you offer?
A. WooCommerce, WooCommerce Extensions, and Themes

Q. Who are your ideal customers? What kind of companies and businesses should contact you for services or products?
A. Store owners and developers looking for a customizable online-shopping-cart solution.

Q. Why do you support WordCamp? What do you hope attendees gain from participating? What suggestions, inspirations, or message do you have to share with attendees in Asheville?
A. In recognition of the open-source nature of the WordPress community we make contributing back to it a part of how we work at WooCommerce. We strongly believe that WordPress is only made better by the community working together and we aim to be a core part of that growth by helping to build the community itself as well as local projects and organizations needing help.

Q. How can people learn more about what you do?
A. Visit and connect with us at WooCommerce.com or join  our networks:
Facebook.com/WooCommerce
Twitter.com/WooCommerce
Instagram.com/WooCommerce